
Modern
reconstruction of Noah's Ark |
The Great
Flood:
mythological
story about a great destruction that once befell the earth. There are
several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The
possibility that there is a historical
event behind the story (a local
flood in southern Babylonia
in the twenty-eighth century BCE) can not
be
excluded.
Genesis 9
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and
said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The
fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the
earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on
the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are
delivered. Every
moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the
green plants, I give you everything. Only
you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For
your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I
will require it and of man; of every man's brother I will require the
life of man. Whoever
sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made
man in his own image. And
you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and
multiply in it."
Then
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "Behold,
I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and
with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle,
and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I
establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be
cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a
flood to destroy the earth."
And
God said, "This is
the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I
set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between
me and the earth. When
I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I
will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every
living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a
flood to destroy all flesh. When
the bow is in the
clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the
earth." God
said to Noah, "This is the sign of the
covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon
the earth."
The
sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Ham was the father of Canaan. These
three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was
peopled.
Noah was the first tiller of the soil.
He
planted a vineyard; and
he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told
his two brothers outside. Then
Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their
shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their
father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their
father's nakedness. When
Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to
him, he
said, "Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his
brothers." He
also said, "Blessed by YHWH my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his
slave." God
enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan
be his slave."
After
the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. All
the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
|
|